I recently came across a quote that someone posted on their Instagram and it made my heart smile.

“Dear Woman,
Sometimes you’ll just be too much woman.
Too smart,
Too beautiful,
Too strong.
Too much of something that makes a man feel like less of a man,
Which will make you feel like you have to be less of a woman.
The biggest mistake you can make
Is removing jewels from your crown
To make it easier for a man to carry.
When this happens, I need you to understand
You do not need a smaller crown—
You need a man with bigger hands.”

-Michael Reid

Ladies, do NOT settle for anything less than who you are. We always try to change ourselves to try and attract a certain type of man. Be YOU! The man that will come alongside you, will be able to handle all of you. You are beautiful inside and out. (I need this reminder, being a single woman in my late 20s. -phew especially in Christian culture.) Love you and embrace yourself. Know your worth! You are loved and beautiful!<3

I am making this post to support someone who is extremely important to me. I believe that he is extremely talented and deserves to have this project supported. He has a passion for helping those around him and loving on people. He wants to make a difference in his community and help others know their value. Would you consider supporting his kickstarter? The Love EP Project is something that is worth your time to check out and support. His name is BRNES and he is a talented musician who writes his own music and plays multiple instruments. Take some time and swing by his Facebook BRNES

The hopeless romantic comes out in me every time that I watch this movie. It has to be my favorite movie from growing up. While some say that Disney has ruined the idea of true love, it helps me to dream and believe in the impossible and unlikely.

Here is the thing. I don’t want perfect. I’ve never wanted perfect. Because well…quite honestly, I am not perfect. How am I to expect that someone else will be perfect, when I am not perfect. What I do hope for is someone who loves me with all of my imperfections and will support me. I hope that they support me in ways that I am not looking for or expecting. I want someone who is going to support me, as much as I am going to support him. It’s a partnership right? This isn’t supposed to be one-sided. We are supposed to complement each other and balance one another.

Beauty and the Beast did make me tear up a lot when I saw it the first time in theaters. I wasn’t expected it. I thought it would just take me back to my childhood. No, it was so much more than that. It brought a lot of emotions and feelings to me.

When she says the part about wanting more than her provincial life, I lost it. If you know the story, that is pretty close to the start. There is a real process and growth that she goes through on her own even in this movie. It’s neat to watch these movies that I loved as a kid, now as an adult. Because of course I own the original and have watched that several times over the last couple months, though I hadn’t watched it in years.

There are so many levels and layers to this movie, as there are to real love. It’s not necessarily easily. It comes out of nowhere and requires that both people make a choice for it to work. It’s painful and messy but so worth it at the same time. Learning to love is an ever evolving process. And each love story is unique.

Tonight I enjoyed good food and conversation with a dear friend. I have realized that our relationship is a unique one and may seem quite odd from the outside. It might be rather peculiar to some. However, I have come to realize that these times that we spend together are highly ordained and very much divine appointments. While we can talk about very normal everyday things like work and relationships, we always have a very real moment each time, where Jesus shows up.

We often times rather quickly changes gears and the Lord does his thing. It is so cool to watch how our willingness and openness to have him meet us there works in such large ways. We have very real conversation, talking about fears and feelings, acknowledging them and noting that they are valid, yet come back to very real truths found in scripture.

We are loved and adored by the Lord. He delights in us and has great things for us. Yet he needs us to be willing and surrendered. We need to be willing to sacrifice and trust that he is going to give us so much better and more than what we could fathom. We just need to be willing to do what he asks of us. We know that this is much more easily said than felt in the heart or carried out. It’s always a challenge to get your heart and mind on the same page.

While I know tonight the Lord was clearly working something out in her, he showed up for me to and reminded me of a lot of things. While we all walk through tough seasons and feel overwhelmed beyond belief by problems that are so much bigger than us, Jesus is with us. He is seated on the throne and we are not alone.

He is always up to something and has such greater things in store. Even if we are in a season of blessing and we feel like it can’t get better, it does. When we are faithful with little, he gives us more.

While I am truly excited for her and what he is doing in her life, he reminded me that he is up to something in mine and is allowing me, little ol’ me to come alongside some pretty amazing people and be a small part of their journey too.

I hope that you have some particular relationships that may seem peculiar at first happen and that they help to grow you and challenge you. He can use the most unexpected of people to come alongside you. I look forward to having many more unique relationships throughout this journey of life.

My heart is heavy about many things at the moment and I don’t know where to begin. If I’m honest, I’ve been perpetually in this mindset for a while. It’s just that life happens and I get distracted. But my heart is often bombarded with overwhelming waves of passion and conviction. And I don’t always know how to channel it. I don’t know what I can do to fix the things that are troubling me and right these wrongs.

They are things that are much bigger than just me. They are things that are bigger than my community and the people that I interact with on a daily basis. And yet, I think that it has to start there. It has to be a movement and a change that happens in each town and community. It needs to start small and spread. It’s not something we can rely on a government to mandate or command. We have to make the choice.

We have to choose to be different, to act different. WE have to choose to look at others with the love of Christ. We have to see beyond our fleshly selves and our own selfishness. WE have to truly converse with and listen to one another. WE need to be willing to interact with those who are different than us. WE cannot be comfortable with only being around those who think, act, look, and talk like us. WE are each uniquely different and each have a lot to teach one another. Yet WE don’t take the time.

WE make excuses and push it off. But what is that leaving the next generation? Doesn’t that defeat the progress we have made? Doesn’t it prevent further progress from being made. I don’t want to live in that world.

My heart is sad and heavy. There is a change that needs to happen and I want to make a difference with those around me. I want more than to type and say something. I want to have an impact and make those around me feel valued, loved, and appreciated. I want us all to know that we matter and have a voice. There’s a lot of things I want and hope for. I guess I need to just start with me and hope that it spreads to others.

“It’s a relationship….” These are the words that many of the people that I know say just to say them. This is what they have been taught to believe and answer but it’s not always real for them. It’s not always been real for me. Over the past couple years, it has become more real and I was reminded of how true these words are to me.

While I have become someone who enjoys putting on my best, getting all dolled up, and going to church on Sunday, that’s not where this relationship begins or ends for me. I used to be the kid who hated to put on the dress on Sunday morning and couldn’t understand why we had to go to church twice on Sundays.

As we celebrate Pentecost today, I was reminded that this is more than going to church on Sunday. It’s got to be about being a witness to those around me, especially those who don’t share the same belief in Jesus that I do.

Again, I am the one who is learning to worship Jesus in new and different ways, that I had honestly once thought strange. To be someone who feels the urge to get up and run or dance in the middle of praise and worship. Or even to be someone who lets out a shout or has my own prayer language. These were all things that I once thought strange and impossible. But this church that I attend and the people that I met, encouraged me to take God outside this box that I had put him in.

While there is something truly beautiful and amazing that happens when you really open yourself up to the Lord and being filled with the Holy Ghost, I don’t want it to be confined to my experiences inside the church or just with the church body. I want this to be a daily testimony as I interact with believer and non-believers alike. My relationship with Jesus is not limited to a building or only able to come out with a certain group of people.

While there is an overwhelming presence and power that comes when we gather as a church body, my encounters are not limited to these times. I have deeper moments of connection and revelation when it’s me and Jesus in my closet or in my car. Honestly, sometimes too it’s been in the middle of the work day or in a large crowded city. I’m learning to be open to seeing him in everything.

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So while I appreciate the significance of a church building, holding corporate worship, and having a pastor to preside over the body, I don’t want these things to ever take the place of my relationship with Jesus, whom meets me anywhere and will take my praise however, and wherever.

I think every professing Christian would benefit from attending services at different denominations to grow their own relationship and see how to help others see the beauty and blessing of communion with Christ. While we each have our own relationship with Jesus, there is also the need to meet together to help encourage one another. I just don’t want to confine myself to one type of way of doing things. I want to keep growing in my relationship and experiencing God in new ways, in turn then helping others to want the same thing.

Receiving food with directions of how to prepare right to your door? Dummy proof right? It’s super convenient and requires minimum thought. Why not try it?

These were my thoughts. Honestly, it’s worked out for me, except this week when I forgot I was going to be out of town and then to cancel the next week’s meals. My fridge is busting at the seams and I do not have time to prepare this food. Isn’t that the story every night though?

Maybe that’s just me as a single person. I haven’t been home at night for it to be worth my while. But I like the flexibility of canceling each week. It’s allowed me to try new foods and find out that I like them. Who knew I would like fennel, brussel sprouts, and farro.

If you’ve thought about it. Try it! See what you think. It may not be cost effective if you are 6′ 2″ and eat the whole thing yourself but if you’re like me, it helps you to learn portioning, eat healthier, and try new things. Plus you get to keep the recipes.

Have your tried it? Do you have a favorite meal delivery service? Let me know!

I literally just spent probably close to 30 minutes mindlessly surfing through my social media accounts, getting down on myself about my life and where I am at based on what others have told me gives meaning to my life. At this time of my life, I am supposed to have gotten married to someone and had at least one child, if not a small herd of them. I am supposed to basically have my whole life figured out.

At this point of my life, I do not. I am currently single and not dating anyone. This does not mean that I am not in love. I am very much in love. But that’s another story (aka a much longer blog post) for another time. And with that, I do not have a child. And that should make me feel some kind of way, inadequate, maybe, especially according to the Christian world.

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Let me tell you though what I have accomplished in the last few months. I finished a mentorship program with one of the largest Christian organizations in the United States. I finished my graduate degree in Education. I was demoted, only to then be promoted two weeks later. This means that I now have about 30 people underneath me, that I manage on a daily basis. I have started to network with other female entrepreneurs. I have started writing a book and I’m about to become part of a mentoring program.

What I realize is that, in all honesty, this is just the start. I have spent so much time being so self-conscious and so focused on how I feel like I am measuring up to this idea of what I am supposed to be at this point in my life. But I have accomplished so much as a single female, with just Jesus by my side. I wouldn’t be where I am without him. I personally cannot deny that.

None of us are on the same path and no one’s path is less important and valuable. We are all asked to experience certain things and then help to interact with those who are walking the same way. Keep speaking up and talking about the stage that you are in, whether it means that you are a newlywed in your early twenties or someone in your late twenties who still isn’t married and is trying to navigate whether or not you can be friends with someone that you are in love with.

Appreciate the story that you are the main character of. Make it your own and explore every avenue and pathway that is placed in front of you. Don’t settle to be a bystander and minor character in your own narrative. Take ownership of your role and the impact that you can have.

I know that for me, it’s allowing for more adventure and experiences. I hope that it allows for you to go to new places and levels, experiencing parts of you that you didn’t know existed. Keep living your life and don’t allow someone else to dictate what is a full and successful life.

Sitting here as I am basically a bystander to this couple’s first date, makes me feel inspired and laugh inside. He has talked about some girl and said that they are more like brother and sister in their relationship. Probably to reassure this girl sitting across from him that he’s not interested in that particular girl. You’ve got to put that person that you are on the date with at ease. She can’t be wondering, whether or not you are playing the field. In all honesty, and I wish I could tell her this, this other girl is probably an ex-girlfriend. And he probably is trying to feel this situation out.

In the next breath they are talking about his hygiene habits and when he brushes his teeth. He just told her that he only brushes them once a day. Sir, she will not be kissing you, if that is the case. And he said he does it at night versus in the morning, which doesn’t make logical sense. For what purpose did you just tell her that? I really am wondering. To each his own I guess.

Can you tell that I am a people watcher? I enjoy watching interactions between people. They make me smile. He’s definitely trying to show off for her and feel out what she wants to hear. My question is, why can’t you just be yourself? Why do you feel like you have to be a particular person. If she doesn’t know you and doesn’t like the real you, then she’s not right for you. We spend so much of our lives putting on a show and trying to be a certain person to attract a certain type of person that I wonder how much we really show our true selves to people.

Instead we feel each other out and see if we can eventually one day open up and be ourselves with them. Sometimes we let the mask off and show ourselves but I wonder how many more people we could really connect with, if we were actually ourselves from the beginning. And I understand there is some level of social etiquette and professionalism that has to occur in various situations. But I still do wonder.

Now he eventually moves on to then talk about his pre-screening questions that he asks girls. I really do not understand how this girl is sitting there listening to him and taking any of this seriously. Now I agree that there needs to be some questions and standards that you put into place. However, deliver this is a tactful manner and conversational manner. Not like a quiz or something. I don’t understand this conversation that they are having. This guy would’ve turned me off the first few moments of this conversation. But to each his own. Everyone has their own type that they are attracted to and interested in right? This guy is not my type by any means, both physically and personality wise.

Coffee shops are great places to people watch and to think about your own standards and expectations. I came here to write something else, as coffee shops inspire me and motivate me. However, they often take me in a different direction. This was not the adventure that I thought I was going to experience this evening but currently nothing is the adventure that I am expecting it to be.

I hope that you have a great coffee shop experience in the near future. Maybe it will motivate your or get you pondering one of life’s great mysteries.